628 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



covered the disease in the State plantations and in stock 

 imported from the Heins and Sons nurseries, Germany. 

 A conference of state foresters was called at once. Plan- 

 tations were inspected, diseased trees eradicated and it 

 was hoped that the danger had been averted. Further 

 importations of pine were prohibited and control estab- 

 lished by federal authority over the bringing in of all 

 kinds of foreign nursery stock. 



But the planting of imported pines purchased and 

 distributed by commercial nurseries dealing in ornamental 

 stock, for small forest and other plantations, had 

 been quite extensive, and the efforts made by these state 

 foresters failed to detect all the infected trees, largely 

 for lack of specific funds with which to carry out the 

 work with complete thoroughness. Appropriations de- 

 pend on public interest, and the public were asleep and 

 could not be aroused. 



Suddenly, this season, alarming discoveries were made, 

 in several localities, of diseased pines. Under the leader- 

 ship of H. A. Reynolds, Secretary of the Massachusetts 

 Forestry Association, a congressional appropriation was 

 secured to scout for the detection of the disease in pines 

 and on currants and gooseberries. The results to date 

 reveal a wide-spread infection of the latter, covering 

 large areas and every New England State, and even in 

 Minnesota and Wisconsin, where it has been imported 

 from sales through commercial nurseries. 



Unlike the chestnut bark disease, the blister rust cannot 



spread from pine to pine, but finds a secondary host in 

 the currant and gooseberry. By eliminating these species 

 in the neighborhood of infected pines, as well as by com- 

 pletely eradicating the diseased trees themselves, there is 

 still hope of saving the white pine. 



But if the initial error of half-way measures is re- 

 peated, whatever effort is now put forth will be wasted. 

 An interstate committee has been formed to take charge of 

 the work, and after carefully canvassing the possibilities, 

 has decided that the effort should be made. The work calls 

 for state and national appropriations — for lack of which, 

 at first, the disease escaped in the face of the inadequate 

 efforts put forth to stop it. It calls for expert services, 

 for the layman may not always recognize the trouble. 

 It is a most potent example of the wisdom of intelligent 

 technical control and direction of our state forestry 

 departments, — for the state foresters have acted promptly 

 and efficiently. There is still a tendency in certain quar- 

 ters to discourage the efforts at eradication by either 

 minimizing its importance, or, worse still, by throwing 

 up the sponge and declaring that it is all over and nothing 

 can be done to stop the scourge, — and this in the face 

 of the fact that the disease is but fairly started. Such 

 sentiments are distinctly inimical to the public welfare 

 and deserve the most severe condemnation. 



Let us unite in a determined effort to suppress the 

 plague and save the white pine, noblest of all our forest 

 monarchs. 



THE FARM WOODLOT 



IN a recent article, Mr. G. P. Wharton has shown 

 that in the six New England States thirty per cent 

 of the entire region is embraced m woodlots owned 

 by farmers, a total of 11,500,000 acres, fully one-third 

 of which is covered with worthless scrub, while of the 

 remainder hardly 2 per cent is intelligently managed 

 to produce trees. Yet this area is practically all abso- 

 lute forest soil by reason of its steepness and rocky char- 

 acter. Much of it was once cleared for pasture, and is 

 now reverting to forest. 



The total per cent of land devoted to woodlots in 

 other states varies, being lowest in fertile plains, or in 

 regions not adapted to trees, and highest, as distinguished 

 from large forest areas, in unsettled regions with much 

 poor soil and rough topography, but will always total 

 a very substantial percentage of the forest area, and 

 amounts to about 7 per cent of the wooded area of the 

 entire country. 



A thrifty woodlot producing its maximum growth of 

 timber adds enormously to the value of the farm, by 

 supplying fuel and other material, by giving employment 

 to labor and teams in winter, by protecting the home and 

 crops from wind, and by increasing the desirability and 

 marketability of the property. Farmers can afford to 

 hold woodlot property permanently, carrying it as part 

 of the farm unit and growing timber crops in spite of 



taxes and times when, under similar conditions, owners of 

 forest lands not attached to farms find it unprofitable to 

 do so, and sell or abandon the land after denuding it. 



But the widespread neglect and abuse of woodlot prop- 

 erty bids fair to put an end to the woodlot as an economic 

 factor in farm management. Unless farmers are educated 

 to the real value and possibilities of their woodland, this 

 vast area will continue to retrograde as in the past. 



^luch can be accomplished b}' states through the es- 

 tablishment of demonstration areas. But to reach the 

 individual, we must have men educated to the problem. 

 Courses in farm forestry should be made a compulsory 

 part of the curriculum of every state agricultural college 

 receiving government aid. Men with at least this much 

 education in forestry should be chosen as county agents 

 under the Smith-Lever Law. Special state agents, ex- 

 perts in woodlot forestry, should be appointed under this 

 same law in every important woodlot state. 



In spite of all past efforts, the amount of absolute 

 ignorance and indifference among woodlot owners as to 

 the proper care of their property is nothing short of ap- 

 palling, and the sooner this problem receives the recog- 

 nition which it deserves, the better it will be for the great 

 body of farmers on whose shoulders the responsibility 

 rests for ownership and management of a very substan- 

 tial portion of our future timber supply. 



